Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of information service architectural design and, more particularly, to a solution that automatically recommends design assets when making architectural design decisions for information services.
Description of the Related Art
The use of service-oriented architecture (SOA) environments and information services is fast becoming the preferred implementation for enterprise systems. A popular method for creating the architectural design models used to implement information services is the use of application patterns. An application pattern represents a repeatable solution to a problem in a particular context. For example, the preferred data source pattern is applicable when an information service requires data consistency.
As businesses expand their enterprise capabilities, more information services are added to the network to accommodate the expansion. The design and development of information services promotes the reuse of application patterns for addressing the same non-functional requirement in a similar context. However, the architects who gather non-functional requirements and make architectural decisions often do not have a comprehensive list of all the pattern assets that are available for use. Thus, the design of information services depends upon an architect's awareness of available assets to use when designing the information service.
Further, some assets require that an architect understand how to install the asset into a software application in order to use the asset. For example, a pattern implementation needs to be installed within a modeling tool, such as RATIONAL SOFTWARE ARCHITECT, in ordered to be used in design activities.
What is needed is a solution that automatically recommends design assets for architects when designing information services. That is, the solution would automatically query existing asset repositories for assets that address the non-functional requirement that a solution architect is attempting to satisfy. Ideally, such a solution would also document the architectural decisions made in order to provide usage metrics.